The American
Directed by Anton Corbijn
Written by Rowan Joffe
Based on the novel by Martin Booth
I don;t normally do film reviews, but The American - which was on last night - was so fantastic, I decided I had to make an exception. George Clooney plays an ageing hitman who goes to Italy for one last job. What follows is a haunting, meditative film with the kind of stillness one associates with Scandinavia. I really hate it when film reviews give away too much of the plot, so all I'll say is that this is an involving, emotionally taut film with excellent performances from the entire cast. One criticism - the subtitles are too small and thin to be readable. Other than that, an exceptionally well-crafted picture.
Rating: 9/10
Sunday, 21 July 2013
Friday, 19 July 2013
Review - Fuck Buttons
Fuck Buttons
Slow Focus
This has been a good year for noise - two new Merzbow albums, and now one from the Bristol noise duo that the Radio Times refers to as F*** Buttons. Ever since my sister introduced me to this band's music, I've been a fan of theirs, so I had high hopes for this new release.
One thing's for sure - this band are not making three-minute pop shite for the ADD generation. Of the seven tracks available on Youtube, four are over seven minutes long. Nor have they softened their approach - Slow Focus is as noisy and harsh as any of their work.
Ten-minute epic Stalker drags a little to begin with, but soon gets into gear, pulling the listener into an ascendant, glittering soundscape reminiscent of the sadly deceased Part Chimp (venerandam). It's noise, but of the most uplifting kind, so sweet and optimistic that at times you almost forget it's noise at all. Sentients begins with Scott Walker-esque clattering, which soon establishes a lurching rhythm that sounds a little like Tom Waits circa Mule Variations. the off-kilter beat is soon joined by odd, boinging electronic pulses. What with the unusual time signature and ugly sound effects, this track verges on dubstep, and there is a strangely urban vibe to it - it's a song that sounds like it could be the soundtrack to a nighttime walk through Stockwell - it's paranoid, claustrophobic music, more frightened than frightening. In many ways, though, it resembles a conventional dance track - it's danceable, certainly, and there are moments when I can imagine it playing in a club (albeit no club that I've ever been to). Brainfreeze has a similiar intro - though in it's case pounding drums take the place of pots and pans. The electronics have a much thicker, meatier tone to them this time though, and it's overall just a much more aggressive peice of music. This sounds more like the theme tune of the guy who mugs you on that nighttime walk through Stockwell I mentioned earlier. A simple basic figure repeats itself over and over, with minor variations, but rather than building up into a moment of transcendent euphoria, this track beats you down, makes you suffer until you achieve your hard-won ecstasy. Watch the end of Martyrs to get a better explanation of what I'm talking about. Halfway through, the track changes into groggy, punchdrunk atmospherics, which are then replaced by a pummeling drum machine beat overlaid with a storm of electronic bleeps and boops that sound half-sweet, half-sour, like having great unprotected sex with someone you know has herpes. Hidden XS is the second track on the album that passes the ten-minute mark. It starts off with what sounds like a euphoric clubland buildup, if it had been beaten to death with a hammer and left in the heat for a while. It's like something very nice gone decidedly rotten. It soon resolves itself into an introspective, meditative piece. This is the kind of music that I wish the clubs near me played. Of all the tracks on this album, this sounds the most like conventional dance music - it's considerably deeper than that of course, though. This sounds like music for some ritual for an as-yet-undiscovered religion, or possibly the soundtrack to a fucking good sci-fi film. This is the most accessible Fuck Buttons track I've heard - if you're new to noise, I'd suggest this as a starting point.
Prince's Prize begins decidedly oddly, even for these guys. It starts off with a skittering, tinny maze of electronic sounds like an early Nintendo game soundtrack. Soon enough, though, the beat kicks in and it's off on an entirely different track. The rhythm is lively in a way that the Fuck Buttons rarely are - it jumps around like a child with a skipping rope - but for me, this track falls a little flat. It's not that there's anything wrong with it - there's just nothing particularly right with it. The Red Wing starts off with a beat reminiscent of Jay Z - it's got that swagger and that edge. Underneath that, cutting through the rhythm, is a sound like a cross between a fly and a chainsaw. To begin with, The Red Wing sounds like nothing so much as a hip-hop backing track, but it soon moves into something much more interesting. High-pitched sounds, like electronic angels, pierce the mix, lifting it up, making it sound like church music from the 23rd century. It's hypnotic, uplifting, and damn near impossible to listen to quietly. It's on this track that the band become truly worthy of being compared to the mighty Part Chimp - this is a track that stands up alongside Chimp's best, providing a glimpse of what that band would have sounded like if they'd used synthesisers instead of guitar, bass and drums. Utterly wonderful.
Year of the Dog is a shorter track, and again it starts off like something you;d hear on MTV Dance, only with a squallling sound underneath that sounds like a flock of seagulls. A bright, fast riff opens the track, alongside what could be a choir playing gameboys. It goes on in the same vein, building up into a frenzied intensity like some tribal dance, before decaying into Burial-esque atmospherics, then further and further to complete disintegration, as ambient seagull noise takes over entirely.
This is a fantastic album by a fantastic band.
Rating: 9/10
Slow Focus
This has been a good year for noise - two new Merzbow albums, and now one from the Bristol noise duo that the Radio Times refers to as F*** Buttons. Ever since my sister introduced me to this band's music, I've been a fan of theirs, so I had high hopes for this new release.
One thing's for sure - this band are not making three-minute pop shite for the ADD generation. Of the seven tracks available on Youtube, four are over seven minutes long. Nor have they softened their approach - Slow Focus is as noisy and harsh as any of their work.
Ten-minute epic Stalker drags a little to begin with, but soon gets into gear, pulling the listener into an ascendant, glittering soundscape reminiscent of the sadly deceased Part Chimp (venerandam). It's noise, but of the most uplifting kind, so sweet and optimistic that at times you almost forget it's noise at all. Sentients begins with Scott Walker-esque clattering, which soon establishes a lurching rhythm that sounds a little like Tom Waits circa Mule Variations. the off-kilter beat is soon joined by odd, boinging electronic pulses. What with the unusual time signature and ugly sound effects, this track verges on dubstep, and there is a strangely urban vibe to it - it's a song that sounds like it could be the soundtrack to a nighttime walk through Stockwell - it's paranoid, claustrophobic music, more frightened than frightening. In many ways, though, it resembles a conventional dance track - it's danceable, certainly, and there are moments when I can imagine it playing in a club (albeit no club that I've ever been to). Brainfreeze has a similiar intro - though in it's case pounding drums take the place of pots and pans. The electronics have a much thicker, meatier tone to them this time though, and it's overall just a much more aggressive peice of music. This sounds more like the theme tune of the guy who mugs you on that nighttime walk through Stockwell I mentioned earlier. A simple basic figure repeats itself over and over, with minor variations, but rather than building up into a moment of transcendent euphoria, this track beats you down, makes you suffer until you achieve your hard-won ecstasy. Watch the end of Martyrs to get a better explanation of what I'm talking about. Halfway through, the track changes into groggy, punchdrunk atmospherics, which are then replaced by a pummeling drum machine beat overlaid with a storm of electronic bleeps and boops that sound half-sweet, half-sour, like having great unprotected sex with someone you know has herpes. Hidden XS is the second track on the album that passes the ten-minute mark. It starts off with what sounds like a euphoric clubland buildup, if it had been beaten to death with a hammer and left in the heat for a while. It's like something very nice gone decidedly rotten. It soon resolves itself into an introspective, meditative piece. This is the kind of music that I wish the clubs near me played. Of all the tracks on this album, this sounds the most like conventional dance music - it's considerably deeper than that of course, though. This sounds like music for some ritual for an as-yet-undiscovered religion, or possibly the soundtrack to a fucking good sci-fi film. This is the most accessible Fuck Buttons track I've heard - if you're new to noise, I'd suggest this as a starting point.
Prince's Prize begins decidedly oddly, even for these guys. It starts off with a skittering, tinny maze of electronic sounds like an early Nintendo game soundtrack. Soon enough, though, the beat kicks in and it's off on an entirely different track. The rhythm is lively in a way that the Fuck Buttons rarely are - it jumps around like a child with a skipping rope - but for me, this track falls a little flat. It's not that there's anything wrong with it - there's just nothing particularly right with it. The Red Wing starts off with a beat reminiscent of Jay Z - it's got that swagger and that edge. Underneath that, cutting through the rhythm, is a sound like a cross between a fly and a chainsaw. To begin with, The Red Wing sounds like nothing so much as a hip-hop backing track, but it soon moves into something much more interesting. High-pitched sounds, like electronic angels, pierce the mix, lifting it up, making it sound like church music from the 23rd century. It's hypnotic, uplifting, and damn near impossible to listen to quietly. It's on this track that the band become truly worthy of being compared to the mighty Part Chimp - this is a track that stands up alongside Chimp's best, providing a glimpse of what that band would have sounded like if they'd used synthesisers instead of guitar, bass and drums. Utterly wonderful.
Year of the Dog is a shorter track, and again it starts off like something you;d hear on MTV Dance, only with a squallling sound underneath that sounds like a flock of seagulls. A bright, fast riff opens the track, alongside what could be a choir playing gameboys. It goes on in the same vein, building up into a frenzied intensity like some tribal dance, before decaying into Burial-esque atmospherics, then further and further to complete disintegration, as ambient seagull noise takes over entirely.
This is a fantastic album by a fantastic band.
Rating: 9/10
Tuesday, 16 July 2013
Grindcore for Beginners Part 4 - Goregrind
Carcass
Reek of Putrefaction
Earache; 1988
So. We've dealt with the origins of grindcore, the righteous anger of Conflict, Discharge and Napalm Death - now, onto another fork in the path. Carcass' debut album was not only one of the first grindcore albums ever released, but is widely credited with inventing the subgenre of goregrind. Their sophomore effort, Symphonies of Sickness, is arguably the better album - and is certainly closer to what the band wanted from their music - but as an example of goregrind, Reek is perfect. The vocals are as gruesome as they come, the production values are so low that they're almost nonexistent, and who could possibly dislike an album with song titles like Genital Grinder and Carbonised Eyesockets?
But what really makes this album - and Carcass themselves - special is the band's sense of humour. A lot of metal and grind bands sing about gore, violence, death, etc. but Carcass are a cut above the rest because they don't take themselves seriously. Compare them to Deicide, for example. Deicide aren't a gore band, but they do work on roughly the same principles: shock everyone and teenagers will like you. Now, I'm not slagging off Deicide - they're a damn good band - but lyrically, let's be honest, how many of Glenn Benton's attention-seeking "fuck Jesus" rants can you listen to before you get bored? If the lyrics were intelligible, Deicide would be about as interesting as Marilyn Manson.
But Carcass manage to pull off the gore thing largely because they keep their tongues wedged firmly in their cheeks. They're not a full-on joke band, like Anal Cunt, but - much like The Darkness (now there's a comparison I never thought I'd make) - they realise that their music is, in many respects, quite funny, and they accept that and go with it.
But that's not to say that this album is only great because of the humour. The songs are fantastic. The riffs, the drum fills, the vocals that burble like a tar pit - all of these elements combine to make a genre-defining classic.
Also, Carcass are set to release a new album, Surgical Steel, this year.
Reek of Putrefaction
Earache; 1988
So. We've dealt with the origins of grindcore, the righteous anger of Conflict, Discharge and Napalm Death - now, onto another fork in the path. Carcass' debut album was not only one of the first grindcore albums ever released, but is widely credited with inventing the subgenre of goregrind. Their sophomore effort, Symphonies of Sickness, is arguably the better album - and is certainly closer to what the band wanted from their music - but as an example of goregrind, Reek is perfect. The vocals are as gruesome as they come, the production values are so low that they're almost nonexistent, and who could possibly dislike an album with song titles like Genital Grinder and Carbonised Eyesockets?
But what really makes this album - and Carcass themselves - special is the band's sense of humour. A lot of metal and grind bands sing about gore, violence, death, etc. but Carcass are a cut above the rest because they don't take themselves seriously. Compare them to Deicide, for example. Deicide aren't a gore band, but they do work on roughly the same principles: shock everyone and teenagers will like you. Now, I'm not slagging off Deicide - they're a damn good band - but lyrically, let's be honest, how many of Glenn Benton's attention-seeking "fuck Jesus" rants can you listen to before you get bored? If the lyrics were intelligible, Deicide would be about as interesting as Marilyn Manson.
But Carcass manage to pull off the gore thing largely because they keep their tongues wedged firmly in their cheeks. They're not a full-on joke band, like Anal Cunt, but - much like The Darkness (now there's a comparison I never thought I'd make) - they realise that their music is, in many respects, quite funny, and they accept that and go with it.
But that's not to say that this album is only great because of the humour. The songs are fantastic. The riffs, the drum fills, the vocals that burble like a tar pit - all of these elements combine to make a genre-defining classic.
Also, Carcass are set to release a new album, Surgical Steel, this year.
Wednesday, 10 July 2013
New Gorguts track
Well, it's been a good week - Carcass have released a new track, the bassist/vocalist from Blister Unit just thanked me for rating his album as one of my favourites of the year so far, and now Gorguts have released another new song from their forthcoming album Coloured Sands. It's seven minutes long, which I was worried about to begin with, but this is a band that is definitely capable of sophistication. They manage to build so many different segments into this song - from outright sonic terrorism to sinister, groovy passages, to a guitar solo (though they probably could have left that out) and even a brief acoustic outro. This is a complex, multi-layered track that takes diverse textures and complex instrumental parts and builds them up - and it does seem right to talk about this song as having been built, like a car or a house, rather than written. Other than the aforementioned guitar solo (which perfectly exemplifies why metal bands should avoid guitar solos), this is a cracking track.
Review - Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys
Electric
There's a thing where you can stream this album on the Guardian website, so I thought I'd check it out. Opening track Axis is a fantastic pop song - I found myself dancing in my seat. It has the standard 120bpm dance beat, but the Pet Shop Boys actually manage to bring some originality into it - not an easy thing to do in EDM. Forget Daft Punk - this should be the dance anthem of the summer.
Bolshy is a euphoric floorfiller that is unfortunately let down by the singer's irritating voice and awful lyrics. The next track, the appallingly titled Love Is A Bourgeois Concept (!?) is basically the same, and I'm going to give up on the whole track-by-track review here, because every song on this album is a big, upbeat dance track. Some have good lyrics - this one for example,; some have shit lyrics - Bolshy, Flourescent, Last To Die (seriously, when you're covering Springsteen, don;t pick a song from fucking Magic - it's like deciding to do a Dylan cover and doing Wiggle Wiggle); some are heavier, such as the fantastic Shouting In The Evening; some are lighter. But they're all essentially the same thing. It's a damn good album, but a little too uniform - the songs are all fantastic, and they'd make great singles, but it's rather trying to listen to the whole thing all the way through. Still, I'd recommend buying it.
Rating: 8/10
Electric
There's a thing where you can stream this album on the Guardian website, so I thought I'd check it out. Opening track Axis is a fantastic pop song - I found myself dancing in my seat. It has the standard 120bpm dance beat, but the Pet Shop Boys actually manage to bring some originality into it - not an easy thing to do in EDM. Forget Daft Punk - this should be the dance anthem of the summer.
Bolshy is a euphoric floorfiller that is unfortunately let down by the singer's irritating voice and awful lyrics. The next track, the appallingly titled Love Is A Bourgeois Concept (!?) is basically the same, and I'm going to give up on the whole track-by-track review here, because every song on this album is a big, upbeat dance track. Some have good lyrics - this one for example,; some have shit lyrics - Bolshy, Flourescent, Last To Die (seriously, when you're covering Springsteen, don;t pick a song from fucking Magic - it's like deciding to do a Dylan cover and doing Wiggle Wiggle); some are heavier, such as the fantastic Shouting In The Evening; some are lighter. But they're all essentially the same thing. It's a damn good album, but a little too uniform - the songs are all fantastic, and they'd make great singles, but it's rather trying to listen to the whole thing all the way through. Still, I'd recommend buying it.
Rating: 8/10
Tuesday, 9 July 2013
New Carcass Song!!
I've just come across a brand new Carcass track, completely by accident, on Youtube, and I must say it's pretty awesome. Give it a listen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2zkdQxIXlw
The song is called Captive Bolt Pistol. Those who were hoping for a return to their goregrind roots will be disappointed; this song leans more towards the the melodic death metal of Heartwork, especially in terms of the production. It's sharp, without ever being so clean that it detracts from the brutality of the track. I'd definitely recommend giving this a listen - it's been a long time since this band have brought out anything new (and, let's face it, their last album was not exactly a classic) but it seems they've lost none of their edge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2zkdQxIXlw
The song is called Captive Bolt Pistol. Those who were hoping for a return to their goregrind roots will be disappointed; this song leans more towards the the melodic death metal of Heartwork, especially in terms of the production. It's sharp, without ever being so clean that it detracts from the brutality of the track. I'd definitely recommend giving this a listen - it's been a long time since this band have brought out anything new (and, let's face it, their last album was not exactly a classic) but it seems they've lost none of their edge.
Saturday, 6 July 2013
Albums of the Year (so far) and a review
Albums of the Year (so far)
Well, we're halfway through 2013 and the Guardian's recently published a list of their readers' albums of the year so far, so I thought I'd do the same. There'll be ten records in my final end-of-year list, but since it's only July, I'll put five in here. I love lists like these, partly because I love making lists, and partly because they serve as an antidote to all those miserable tossers who moan about how music there isn't any good music nowadays. The truth is, there's as much great music around now as there ever has been, you just have to look a little harder.
No. 5: Blister Unit
Christ Ape
This album was a treat for anyone who enjoys unpretentious, straightforward grindcore. There isn't an ounce of innovation, experimentation or progressiveness on this record, and that's just the way it should be - Blister Unit delivered an adrenaline-sodden thrillride of an album, and I'm looking forward to listening to the new material that is available on their bandcamp page.
No. 4: Napalm Death
Utilitarian
Let's face it, there was no way I wasn't going to include Napalm Death in this list. With Utilitarian, these aging titans of grind proved that they can hold their own alongside any of us young whippersnappers. Sixteen tracks and more than forty minutes of brutal, unrelenting grind proved that you still cannot fuck with Napalm.
No. 3: Cloud Rat
Moksha
With an album title taken from Eastern philosophy and a cover of a Neil Young song, Cloud Rat's Moksha was not your typical grind album. Not that anyone expected otherwise from one of the more intelligent - and one of the best - grind bands around. Cloud Rat delivered a complex, multifaceted album that managed to be genuinely disturbing as well as beautiful - few bands manage either of those things, so it's a real acheivement to do both on the same record. Long live Cloud Rat.
No. 2: Laura Marling
Once I Was An Eagle
A slight change of pace here. Marling's debut was a real gem - enchanting, sexy, tough and just generally fantastic, this album more than deserves its place at No. 2 on this list.
No. 1: Merzbow/Nordvagr
Partikel III
Merzbow, of course, needs no introduction, but I'll introduce him anyway. The stage name of Japanese composer/improviser Masami Akita, Merzbow is the undisputed king of Noise. More than three hundred and fifty albums in a career spanning four decades amount to both the largest and most significant body of work of any artist in the genre.
According to Wikipedia, Nordvagr is a Swedish musician whose enormous discography covers a variety of styles, focusing on the noisy, the dark and the extreme. So a pretty unlikely pair then, these two.
This album is fantastic - even non-noise fans will love it. While Merzbow's previous release, Kibako, was a straight-up harsh noise record, Partikel III is something altogether different, a set of four pulsing, atmospheric tracks reminiscent of Fuck Buttons. This is a trippy, hallucinogenic album, combining Aphex Twin-style beats with almost dubsteppy basslines and electronic noise to create vast, echoing caverns of sound. Hypnotic soundscapes punctuated intermittently with flutters of crackling noise like the wings of insects, the sound of what could be a car engine revving. This is deeply introspective music - it takes one deep into one's own head. Parts of it sound like Burial, parts like Metal Machine Music, Lou Reed's masterpiece and the album that invented Noise. Even in a career as illustrious as Merzbow's, this album is a high point that he will struggle to reach again.
Rating: 10/10
Well, we're halfway through 2013 and the Guardian's recently published a list of their readers' albums of the year so far, so I thought I'd do the same. There'll be ten records in my final end-of-year list, but since it's only July, I'll put five in here. I love lists like these, partly because I love making lists, and partly because they serve as an antidote to all those miserable tossers who moan about how music there isn't any good music nowadays. The truth is, there's as much great music around now as there ever has been, you just have to look a little harder.
No. 5: Blister Unit
Christ Ape
This album was a treat for anyone who enjoys unpretentious, straightforward grindcore. There isn't an ounce of innovation, experimentation or progressiveness on this record, and that's just the way it should be - Blister Unit delivered an adrenaline-sodden thrillride of an album, and I'm looking forward to listening to the new material that is available on their bandcamp page.
No. 4: Napalm Death
Utilitarian
Let's face it, there was no way I wasn't going to include Napalm Death in this list. With Utilitarian, these aging titans of grind proved that they can hold their own alongside any of us young whippersnappers. Sixteen tracks and more than forty minutes of brutal, unrelenting grind proved that you still cannot fuck with Napalm.
No. 3: Cloud Rat
Moksha
With an album title taken from Eastern philosophy and a cover of a Neil Young song, Cloud Rat's Moksha was not your typical grind album. Not that anyone expected otherwise from one of the more intelligent - and one of the best - grind bands around. Cloud Rat delivered a complex, multifaceted album that managed to be genuinely disturbing as well as beautiful - few bands manage either of those things, so it's a real acheivement to do both on the same record. Long live Cloud Rat.
No. 2: Laura Marling
Once I Was An Eagle
A slight change of pace here. Marling's debut was a real gem - enchanting, sexy, tough and just generally fantastic, this album more than deserves its place at No. 2 on this list.
No. 1: Merzbow/Nordvagr
Partikel III
Merzbow, of course, needs no introduction, but I'll introduce him anyway. The stage name of Japanese composer/improviser Masami Akita, Merzbow is the undisputed king of Noise. More than three hundred and fifty albums in a career spanning four decades amount to both the largest and most significant body of work of any artist in the genre.
According to Wikipedia, Nordvagr is a Swedish musician whose enormous discography covers a variety of styles, focusing on the noisy, the dark and the extreme. So a pretty unlikely pair then, these two.
This album is fantastic - even non-noise fans will love it. While Merzbow's previous release, Kibako, was a straight-up harsh noise record, Partikel III is something altogether different, a set of four pulsing, atmospheric tracks reminiscent of Fuck Buttons. This is a trippy, hallucinogenic album, combining Aphex Twin-style beats with almost dubsteppy basslines and electronic noise to create vast, echoing caverns of sound. Hypnotic soundscapes punctuated intermittently with flutters of crackling noise like the wings of insects, the sound of what could be a car engine revving. This is deeply introspective music - it takes one deep into one's own head. Parts of it sound like Burial, parts like Metal Machine Music, Lou Reed's masterpiece and the album that invented Noise. Even in a career as illustrious as Merzbow's, this album is a high point that he will struggle to reach again.
Rating: 10/10
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